EA Play 2022 review: Still worth the money?

EA Play Source: Jez Corden / Windows Central

Electronic Arts continues to expand their EA Play service, launched every bit far back as 2022 for the Xbox One. With access to over 90 games, the service is now available on PC and consoles. The largest choice of games is available on the Xbox, thanks to the astern-compatibility program buffing upwardly its library with Xbox 360 games.

With Xbox Game Laissez passer still enjoying success on panel and PC, we're looking into what EA has to offer in 2022 and beyond with this EA Play review. We'll see if information technology'southward worth your difficult-earned cash to gain access to this growing library of games.

EA Play

Bottom line: For a depression price, EA Play gives yous admission to a variety of great games across consoles or PC.

The Expert

Instant access to EA games
Early access to upcoming titles
Fantastic value for coin

The Bad

Poor software on PC
EA Play Pro tier likewise expensive

EA Play: Price and availability

EA Play Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Source: Electronic Arts, Microsoft

Membership is bachelor via a few unlike methods. Subscribe directly to EA Play either as a $4.99 monthly charge or $29.99 almanac subscription at a l% savings.

If yous choose to subscribe through Xbox, EA Play is bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at $14.99 per calendar month, with no annual discount. PC players can subscribe to PC Game Pass via Xbox and enjoy EA Play as part of their service for $9.99 per month.

EA Play: What is it?

EA Play Source: Electronic Arts

EA Play, formerly known as EA Access, is a subscription service available on PC and consoles. It offers a library of games developed and published past Electronic Arts, exclusive 10-hour trials for upcoming releases, and discounts on games to keep.

No matter which avenue yous choose to subscribe to on EA Play, you lot proceeds access to the library of games bachelor on your platform. There's a wide variety of genres, including bestsellers such equally Battlefield, Need for Speed, FIFA, and Madden. Considering these games often retail for equally much every bit $lx on release, subscribing to one calendar month of EA Play is bang-up value for coin if you play only i of these flagship games. Any more you happen to go through volition increase the value of the service, so it's attractive if only considering its low price betoken.

EA Play can act as a type of "demo" for games that don't offering i separately.

While subscribed, any progress and saves that you create will remain on your platform. Should y'all decide to buy a game during one of the frequent sales, you can freely continue the game without extending your EA Play subscription. In this sense, EA Play tin act equally a blazon of "demo" for games that don't offering i separately. Should you lot wonder whether the latest Battleground is worth dropping $lx on, you could play for a calendar month for $v instead. Information technology's tough to find whatsoever way to paint the service as annihilation but fantastic value for money.

The exception to the 10-hour rule is EA Play Pro, a PC-sectional subscription charged at a much steeper $14.99 monthly or $99.99 annual toll at a 44% savings. EA Play Pro removes the timer limit and additionally gives players admission to the highest deluxe variation of each game, editions with all their extra content included. Extra rewards also come with Pro, just the brake to PC only ways the higher cost is less tempting.

At present we know what EA Play is, we'll dive into the features that make information technology great (and a few that arrive non-so-keen).

EA Play: The positives

EA Desktop Source: Electronic Arts

Access to a plethora of games for as little as $5 a month is the primary benefit of EA Play. Additionally, subscribing to the service on an Xbox console gives you lot access to more EA games than whatever other platform. Titles from the Xbox 360 astern-compatibility library, including timeless classics Dragon Age: Origins, Battlefield: Bad Company ii, Dead Infinite, and Skate 3 sweeten the deal. On the PC side, the gigantic EA PC title The Sims 4 is tempting for anyone who enjoys the life simulator. Add to that a wealth of first-person shooters in the Battlefield and Titanfall series, and you accept plenty to bask with a mouse and keyboard.

The second-best feature of EA Play is the 10-hour trial menstruum for upcoming games from EA. Earlier release, titles such as FIFA 22 and Battlefield 2042 offered early admission to EA Play subscribers to try in a beta test of sorts. Though the trials are fourth dimension-limited, the timer only counts downwardly while y'all have the games open, and then endmost them downwards while idle increases the length of access yous have. Yet some other way to examination the waters if you were because dropping large bucks on the latest release from EA.

Your new hyper-fixation can be purchased at a reduced rate and kept forever.

On top of access to games during your subscription, EA Play offers generous discounts on titles. Should you be enjoying a particular game, chances are you will exist able to purchase it at a reduced cost. The best part is that all saved progress in these games will acquit over, then your new hyper-fixation can be purchased at a reduced charge per unit and kept forever. Canceling EA Play temporarily or permanently would not touch on your access to games bought with the included savings. Bargain.

Personally, my partner and I have played games through EA Play that we may accept otherwise avoided. I've never been a big Star Wars fan (don't detest me), so the related games never interested me either. Subscribing to a month'southward worth of EA Play, my partner fabricated her mode through Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Social club, and I found myself watching along every time. Completely ignoring the potential that information technology could be a bang-up game, but because the subject matter hadn't interested me before, I concluded up trying the game myself and had a blast. It's Tomb Raider with lite sabers. Nice.

Having friends from all over the world is one of the best perks of online multiplayer, and with my American buddies playing Madden weekly I decided to give it a shot during my month of EA Play. I knew absolutely nothing about American football game, and to exist off-white, I nevertheless don't exactly empathise what'southward happening most of the time. Fortunately, Madden'due south grooming mode goes through some lengths to explain the general concept of how the sport works, unlike FIFA declining to explain the offside rule in soccer to the uninitiated. I was able to watch Super Bowl LV last yr and vaguely sympathise what was happening, all thanks to EA Play and Madden NFL 21.

Because Fallen Order and Madden 21 both launched at $lx each, I saved a gigantic amount of money just from playing 2 games in a month. Granted, I also dabbled in other games on EA Play, increasing the worth of my $5 spend for the month even further. If for some reason y'all subscribed monthly for 12 total months, y'all would still have simply spent roughly $60, pregnant the annual asking cost of $xxx is more than off-white. Even improve if y'all nab it equally part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, opening up your library to hundreds of extra games on Xbox.

EA Play: The negatives

EA Desktop Source: Windows Central

Fortunately the list of bad points for EA Play is slim, because at that place isn't much to complain most. As a service, it'south wild how much you get for your greenbacks, but some improvements could be made to the application itself, especially on PC.

EA Desktop is the launcher for EA Play on PC. Visually not much different than any other storefront like the Microsoft Store or Steam, it unfortunately crashes for me far besides often. On top of the random hangs, the launcher seems to consume more retentiveness than it should, leading me to disable information technology from automatically starting on boot and in turn, games don't automatically update.

Battlefield 2042 took an age to download, while games on Steam would take a fraction of the time to cease.

Slow downloads also seem to still plague the app, with nix I could notice to permanently remedy it. Battlefield 2042 took an age to download, while games on Steam would have a fraction of the time to finish and install. Most frustrating of all, the speed would occasionally perform as expected for a few minutes, and then crash back downwards to a snail'south pace. Scouring the internet reveals plenty of similar complaints, with generic recommendations to solve the trouble, simply nothing has fixed it for me yet.

With EA currently in the procedure of migrating their service from the Origin software to EA Desktop, this leaves players in limbo of choosing between the 2 launchers. Naturally, EA would adopt users to cull EA Desktop but with these ongoing issues it'southward difficult to recommend. The Origin app isn't without its bug, just they are certainly fewer in number than EA Desktop. Hopefully these bugs will be ironed out earlier the Origin software is officially retired.

Another reality of subscription services is that the library is oftentimes annihilation just permanent, and games will eventually exit the platform. Older sports titles accept been removed over time, oftentimes due to licensing issues. This isn't a terrible loss, since sports games tend to be an incremental improvement every yr, so unless you were particularly addicted of an older version it shouldn't bother you. What does bother me is the planned removal of Titanfall, one of the best games from EA. It is frustrating to see games disappear, especially if y'all had them in a listing of games to play, since it tin can mess with your schedule.

EA Play: Is information technology worth it?

EA Play Xbox Game Pass library Source: Jez Corden / Windows Central

EA Play is overwhelmingly worth the money, even if yous merely subscribe to one month. Worth mentioning that if y'all find enough enjoyment from a couple of months of EA Play, then yous should strongly consider the annual subscription. Twelve months for $30 is an absolute steal and however half the price of a blockbuster release, and then yous should easily find plenty amusement to justify spending that cash.

Alternatively, bundle EA Play together every bit office of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on your console. Relish EA titles aslope some of the best games on Xbox and still save enough of money.

What it's great for ...

Saving money
Trials of upcoming EA games
Trying out games you might not accept considered

What it's non smashing for ...

Bugs in software
Physical collectors — no disc rentals here
EA Play Pro overpriced on PC

EA Play

Bottom line: Another subscription service, but one with fantastic value for money. Grab it past itself or as function of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and bask the savings.

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